Kiomi gave me a minute or two to somehow calm down again, then she began leading us deeper into the dungeon and towards the last room of the three she had built today. By now I was no longer interested in seeing empty rooms and halls, as there were far more pressing matters on my mind, but when we finally reached the place, I still couldn’t help but stare at it wide-eyed and unable to take a single breath.
The place was impossibly huge, large enough to house a small town and then some. The room was once again roughly round in shape like most of her rooms had been, with the ground falling off towards the center. Kiomi explained that she wasn’t sure what to do exactly with it yet, but suggested it could house both homes for herself, the dungeon core, and her more peaceful monsters, as well as allowing for fruits, vegetables, and crops to be grown. She was still thinking of ways to make all of this fit with her floor theme, though.
After suggesting I settle in this room as well, Kiomi led us towards another tunnel that I could see in the cliff face a few hundred meters from our position. The door was tiny, but with two large fox statues once again guarding it, I knew it led to the network of private tunnels Kiomi was using to traverse her own dungeon.
While on our way over to that place, Marisa and Kiomi were discussing possible structures to build in the giant room, such as terraced fields to grow food or hot springs for those living in the future town to relax in. There likely was no need for me to ever eat again, but I couldn’t help but have my mood lifted slightly by the thought of a decent meal with some freshly hunted venison. Still, I couldn’t really find myself adding any ideas of my own to their discussion, as I was still bothered by the fact that the two of them had such origins.
When we finally reached the tunnel, we were greeted by an open door, which Kiomi pointed out was due to the fact that delvers needed to have access to her core room at any given time. She then explained that she would move the core to the large cavern we had just been in, which would allow her to close up the tunnel network for good, adding to the safety of those rooms she didn’t want delvers to be in.
The core room itself was rather unspectacular. It was small and dome-shaped, with an artificial sky and sun lighting it up. Right in the middle there was a pile of white furs with a blue, ball-shaped crystal waiting in the middle of it. Kiomi confessed this was her sleeping place, meaning she hadn’t even come around to build herself a proper bed. I could only sigh hearing her say this.
Four tunnels led out of this room, one of them being the one we had just used. Sadly, there were no signs to be found describing where they led, meaning Kiomi relied on her memory alone to find her way around through the darkness as she seemed to have no access to magic herself. This would work for now, at least barely, but if things got more complicated later on she would need to make some upgrades to this room as well, especially if she planned on turning it into something that had more use than being a mere junction for her tunnels.
Kiomi did not reveal any plans she had for this room after it lost its function as being home to her core. She instead led us into the tunnel closest to the one we had come from, explaining it would lead us to the last two rooms she was going to show me.
The new tunnel was much longer than every single one we had passed and I couldn’t help feeling restless looking at the never-changing walls that surrounded us. Sooner or later I found myself complaining out aloud, asking Kiomi why she didn’t add glowing moss, luminant crystals, or small, sunny rooms to lighten up the tunnels; and once again I got the same answer: her dungeon was simply too new and nobody had yet provided her with any of the necessary items needed to make the dungeon look more beautiful. I couldn’t help but sigh upon hearing this, before silently promising myself that I would personally grab the items from other dungeons if need be - if I could do so in the first place, given that it was unlikely my mana would be replenished over time once I had left the dungeon.
A light in the distance broke me free from my thoughts. We were finally reaching the next room, which seemingly had a wooden house of some sort waiting in it. It was only when I entered the room that I discovered that there were more of the houses or rather wooden huts, all of them being slightly too small to house foxkin.
The ground on this floor was made up of pure rock and dirt, with a small area around one of the houses adding the sole colors one could find in this room. There was a large pond to be seen next to the small house, with only a single geyser separating the two of them. Even without the geyser spraying water, there was a cloud of mist covering most of the building, making it look somewhat haunted.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Just as I was about to ask her about it, Kiomi explained that this room served as a nursery and that there were currently only two foxes living inside of it, both of them being steam foxes. Naturally, I questioned her about this as I knew that dungeon monsters were unable to breed on their own, meaning that having a nursery was entirely pointless. Kiomi just shrugged hearing this, before claiming the two foxes in question were special.
There was an easy way to check if what she said was really true, so I straight up walked to the house in question, only for the cloud surrounding it to begin moving before I even reached it. Two big, pale blue eyes were now visible, staring at my every move, and soon the whole cloud condensed into a big, three-tailed fox. The monster half walked, half floated his way over to me. When I stretched out my hand to greet it, it readily sniffed at it and before long, all three of its tails began to wag from one side to the other. The fox finally barked in a high-pitched voice, causing another cloudy silhouette to make its way out of the shabby house.
Shivers ran over my skin as I noticed the round belly of the fox. As a dungeon-born monster, it should never get fat, meaning there was no other explanation but that Kiomi had told me the truth. This fox was clearly pregnant, and at a late-term even.
Contrary to the much bigger fox that served as the father, the smaller female one was rather shy. She, too, sniffed at my hands, before greeting both Marisa and Kiomi the same way, but after doing her short round, she soon made her way back into her home. It was obvious this pregnancy, however it came to be, was taking some toll on the soon-to-become-mother. I could only hope it was a temporary one.
The larger fox followed its mate back to their nest after greeting Kiomi and receiving a few, gentle pets, seemingly satisfied with this short interaction. When he then transformed back into a cloudlike mist, Kiomi explained how he served as the guardian of both the nursery and the neighboring prayer room, protecting both the mothers and their offspring and preventing thieves from having their go at the precious metals waiting at the prayer room.
Naturally, the mention of precious metals grasped my full attention, so I happily followed Kiomi to a nearby wall, where she once again dug a new tunnel right next to an existing opening that seemed to be barred using rods of mythril.
“What is it with you and mithril?!”
Kiomi hesitated for a moment before answering with a shrug. “It is strong enough to make them reconsider whether bothering my foxes is really worth their time.”
Reluctantly, I accepted her choice of material. Mithril truly worked in her favor in this scenario. But I still couldn’t help silently complaining about the fact that it wasn’t forged into armor, a weapon, or a magical artifact of some sort. Still, it was a hundred times better than just placing down mithril statues just because they looked beautiful!
Nine of such needlessly expensive statues were now greeting us, all of them staring at a large, once again entirely wooden pavilion that stood in the middle of the room. Under its roof a giant statue awaited me, showing both a seemingly sleeping Kiomi and a motherly figure I couldn’t make sense of. Only her nine tails and the titles and name on the statue’s pedestal gave me an answer, although one I had once again trouble accepting.
“Is that… our heavenly mother?”
“It is Cilia,” Marisa confirmed. “The statue looks just like her.”
I couldn’t help but point out the flaws the statue had compared to the ones I had seen back in my old life, such as it having a smaller bosom but longer tails or her face being slightly different. She seemed to be carved in Kiomi’s image, although that couldn’t possibly be true, as there was no way Cilia would accept that. Or was there?
Before I could ask her more about it, Kiomi knelt down in front of the statue, closed her eyes, and summoned a large, and thick blanket out of the ground, with a black, fox-like silhouette stitched into it. She really seemed to go out of her way to turn everything she touched foxlike. I couldn’t help but chuckle about her antics.
Kiomi carefully placed the newly created blanket down, creating a soft resting spot. “Use this one for your prayer,” she advised me. “If you are anything like me, this will take a few hours.”
“You have really met her…”
Once again she answered with a nod, before ushering me to sit down on the blanket she had provided me with. Just as I did so, she placed her hand on my shoulder, sending a jolt of energy through my body.
“I selected you as a gatherer,” she explained the feeling. “Feel free to check out the surroundings once you have finished your prayer.”
“Will do…”
“And sorry…” She added almost whispering. “About everything.”
After saying that much, the two of them made their way over to one of the tunnels leading out of the room. They hugged, before exchanging a few words I couldn’t quite hear, and before I knew it, Marisa was already making her way into the darkness, led only by a small flame she had summoned.
Kiomi, on the other hand, fixed the wall she had destroyed just moments ago, before making her way through the other tunnel, seemingly back into the depths of the dungeon. I was finally alone. Now it was only me, my worries, and Cilia who would hopefully fix them all.
I immediately went to pray.
- - -
Updated Map as of Chapter 38c:
image [https://i.imgur.com/cRdZFGX.jpeg]